There was a minor change to the 2011-2012 calendar. As New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, school will skip Monday and start on Tuesday. This allows for the holiday to be observed on Monday as most other neighboring community school systems will also do. The revised calendar has been posted and prior versions removed to avoid confusion.

Of most interest was the action to accept the proposal on reducing the math graduation requirements to three years. Peter Light gives a good and brief summary of the position and why. Peter's comments occur about 1:01 of the action item segment.

On Wednesday, the School Building Committee meet to hear the first presentation on four options for the renovation of Franklin High. Two of the options are for renovation and two of the options are for building a new school. As the prices are comparable amongst them, the pros and cons will really need to be looked at as the project goes forward.

The next step is for the committee to finalize their options, and decide on a recommendation. This package (three options with one of them a recommendation) will then go before the MSBA where they will make a decision. That decision will then come back to the Franklin voters to approve or reject. If we approve, then the project proceeds with the State contributing something just above 50%. If we reject, the full cost of any resulting project will be borne solely by the Franklin taxpayers. The rejection will have lost our state reimbursement.

The committee is looking to decide by May and get before the MSBA in July which still puts us on the time line for a fall vote. Stay tuned to this one as it develops.

The Finance Committee was scheduled to meet on Tuesday. As the budget book won't be ready until the end of the month, this meeting has been canceled. The budget hearings have been scheduled for May 2, 3, 5, 9 and 10. The calendar on Franklin Matters has been updated accordingly.

The Town Council is scheduled to meet on Weds. The Community Gardens group will be formed as an official town committee. There will be a public hearing on the Brownfields options for the NUStyle property on Grove St. Additional agenda items can be found on the full agenda here

---- ---- ----This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin. I can use your help.How can you help, you ask?If you have an interest in writing about something that matters in Franklin, please let me know.As always -

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This feedback loop is important. Thank you for listening.For additional information, please visitFranklinmatters.blogspot.com/If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot comThe music for the intro and exit was provided byMichael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana" c. Michael Clark &Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permissionI hope you enjoy!